ed show." i'm ed schultz.therachelmaddowshow starts right now. >> thanks. there is a lot to get to this hour, including news about potential gun law reforms and the continuing reaction to the newtown, connecticut, school massacre there. is some surprising news out of michigan on that issue today that we're going to be getting to. there is news about who is going to be in the united states senate in this next congress. we found out yesterday who is being tapped to replace senator jim demint, who is leaving the senate. we also found out yesterday who might replace john kerry if he leaves the senate to be secretary of state. we found out today who is the odds-on favorite to replace long-time hawaii senator daniel inouye, who died yesterday. we've got all that news ahead. >>> but we begin tonight with something that is an important story in its own terms. but for those of us at msnbc and nbc news, it is also an incredibly emotional thing. and i can tell you, it ends with good news. it ends with this news, which i can say personally was greeted by all of us as the best news in the wo

me to talk about the fiscal cliff."therachelmaddowshow" starts right now. >> good evening, ed. thank you. thanks to you at home for staying with us. if you get a tweet from president obama, you will know it by his signature. the president has an official twitter account from which all sorts of on message things get tweeted. but the white house says you know when a tweet has been written by the president himself because in that case the tweet gets a little initial signature. a "bo" in lower case. barack obama, as in i the president wrote this tweet. if it was a dog, it would be the paw print. the president was writing his own tweet this is afternoon. the string of twitter messages about the budget negotiations in washington. the white house announcing in advance today that the president himself would be answering people's questions about the negotiations in washington. he would be answering them directly on twit ter starting a 2:00 p.m. eastern. it is kind of awesome that regular people can ask direct questions from the leader of the free world. it's like a town hall but you do